NEW MONSTER: KEEPER

KEEPER

FREQUENCY: Very rare

NO. APPEARING: 1-4

ARMOR CLASS: 6

MOVE: 12”

HIT DICE: 1 (5 hit points each)

% IN LAIR: 50%

TREASURE TYPE: Nil

NO. OF ATTACKS: 1

DAMAGE/ ATTACK: 1-4

SPECIAL ATTACKS: Possession

SPECIAL DEFENSES: Nil

MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard

SAVE: Fighter 1

INTELLIGENCE: Low

MORALE: See below

ALIGNMENT: Neutral

SIZE: M (working form) or S (natural form)

PSIONIC ABILITY: Nil

LEVEL/ X.P. VALUE: I/ 15

Keepers are artificial organic life forms created by the Triskelion family to do menial work, specifically gardening and groundskeeping in The Grounds portion of Castle Triskelion.

While working, keepers inhabit humanoid bodies made of rust proof metal alloys. The bodies have almost a skeletal appearance, with the head being box-like. These metallic frame bodies are not particularly sturdy and can sustain only five hit points of damage.

Keepers are created in order to do gardening, planting, trimming, and they excel at such tasks. In self defence they are capable of striking out for 1-4 points of damage but they will never attack of their own volition and they are completely incapable of harming members of the Triskelion family under any circumstances.

In their natural form, they are amorphous green bundles of plasm a few inches in diameter. They float in a pool of similarly colored semisolid material which provides them with nourishment. They assume their metal working form by sliding into the bodies through a connecting link in the back. They may remain away from their pool for up to six hours, when they must return to replenish their life force. If they remain away from their pool for longer than six hours they will perish.

In certain circumstances a keeper is capable of attempting to possess a living body. If a keeper has been in its working form for six hours and has been prevented from returning to its pool, it will try to come into physical contact with a creature in order to “ride” its body and return to its pool. Treat this as a magic jar attack, with the keeper having an intelligence score of between 5 and 7 and a wisdom score of between 2 and 8. After the keeper returns to its pool the host will be no worse for wear.

Similarly, if a being touches the green stuff of the pool of a batch of keepers, there is a 75% chance that a particularly stupid or distracted keeper will mistake the body for that of its normal host and perform a magic jar attack. In this case, the keeper is fortified and gets a +4 bonus to its attack. If it succeeds in possessing a host it will go about its normal duties for six hours before returning to its pool.